Wyrd & Wonder is hosting a monthlong readalong of Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter. Week One covers chapters 36 through the end. Mayri @ The Book Forager wrote this week’s questions. Check the Goodreads thread for all four weeks of questions.

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Discussion Questions

1) Lin’s a construct, Bayan’s a construct, the people on Maila Isle are constructs … Let’s talk about constructs! We now know far more, but still not enough. What are your thoughts and feelings on the nature of constructs?

Hmm, yes, I’m not really sure about human constructs. The little we know about constructs becomes complicated when considering these characters who appear to be entirely human that we’ve been following the entire story turn out to have more in common with the animalistic constructs than I would’ve guessed… (wow did that sentence make any sense?) I’m sure there will be a lot more to learn about how Lin came into being and how bone shards might play a role in her existence.

2) Hot on the heels of the revelation that she was not born but made, Lin has learned why she was made *shudder*. Reaction shots, please.

This was less shocking to me than some of the other reveals (like when I thought Sand was literally Nisong, though I no longer think that.) It actually ‘made sense’ to me since we found out that original Lin died as a toddler. So, it no longer followed that the Emperor was trying to restore or recreate his daughter, because she barely made it out of infancy. The fact that he was trying to recreate his dead wife made more sense with what we knew about him.

3) The Emperor is dead. (Hurray!) Phalue has successfully usurped her father as governor. (Yay?) Change is on the wind and those Alanga paintings have opened their eyes… Care to make any predictions for what’s coming? Do you think the Alanga are really a threat?

I want to talk about the Emperor’s death for a second. His was the final death of all the characters that Lin had any connection to. I didn’t find any of those deaths moving – to me, they were all methodical and necessary plotwise, but didn’t have much impact on Lin. She remains a distant character to me. The Emperor’s death in particular felt a bit rushed and unresolved, like he just had to die by the end of the book so Lin can become Emperor. I might have liked him to stick around so we could learn more about him and Lin and their past and his experience being Emperor and the bone shard magic and such. I guess we will be learning about those things in other ways!

Anyway, predictions – yup, I think the Alanga will be a threat but the question will be to whom HMMMMMMM…

4) We’ve also discovered the identity of Sand. Possibly. She has memories that suggest she is Nisong, but she is a construct just like Lin. What does it all mean?? (Not a rhetorical question – please tell me what it all means!)

I didn’t pick up on the fact that Sand is definitely a construct – possibly due to my tendency to rush through ends of books. My gut reaction was that she is Nisong, but why would the Emperor have banished her like that? So the idea that she is a failed attempt at recreating Nisong fits better. I would have been interested in a story where Lin is reunited with her mother, though! Who knows, I suppose it could still happen…

5) Jovis and Mephi have arrived on Imperial Island and come face to face with Lin and Thrana. This is an Interesting Development. What are your theories on Mephi and Thrana? Also on the Emperor’s laboratory and what he was using Thrana for?

I was pleased to see Jovis recognize some of Emahla in Lin, literally. At one time in the story, I thought Lin was Emahla with new memories but now that we know Lin is a construct, maybe she’s only create from some pieces of Emahla… awkward =.= I had a hard time visualizing the Emperor’s laboratory and the creatures/constructs there. I wonder how tied the Alanga might be to the bone shard magic.

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I could share more thoughts on this book but it’s after 9PM and I still haven’t published this post. Answering these questions made me realize there’s a lot we still don’t know and could theorize. I will have to do some blog hopping and enjoy everyone else’s opinions and theories. Overall, I enjoyed this story and found it a solid start to a series/trilogy/whatever. It was not nearly as complicated as some reviews led me to think. There are multiple POVs but I found them easy to keep track of. This is the sort of fantasy I can settle in to.